Insider’s Viewpoint: Stealth Health for Picky Eaters

Do your kids refuse to eat anything green? Do mealtimes feel more like a food fight than a family night?

Picky eating is a typical behavior for many children and is step of growing up. Incorporating healthier alternatives in the kitchen may seem impossible with a picky eater on your hands, but there is hope for them to acquire healthy habits! Continually exposing kids to new foods and flavors they initially reject will help them overcome picky tendencies. Most kids outgrow these habits but here are some simple strategies to help encourage more adventurous eating.

Serve dried fruit instead of crackers for a snack, or add dried cherries to pancakes and dried blueberries to a snack mix.

Replace butter and margarine with avocado on sandwiches or in baked goods.

Pair new foods or reintroduce old foods along with their favorites to encourage acceptance.

Experimenting with recipes is a great way to help the picky-eater in your family explore new foods, tastes, and flavors. It also makes cooking fun in the kitchen!

Incorporate Purées

Adding vegetable (and/or fruit purées) to your child’s favorite foods can be an effective way to increase essential vitamins and minerals needed for proper nutrition.

Make purées ahead of time and freeze in ice cube trays or individual containers to quickly add to your meals as you are preparing to save an extra step in cooking.

Don’t throw away those overripe bananas sitting on your counter. Instead, slice and place in the freezer overnight. Then blend for a creamy ice cream-like treat.

To increase vitamin A, vitamin C and fiber in your child’s diet, try puréeing yams and carrots. This orange purée can be a healthy and colorful addition to your child’s favorite mac ‘n cheese or pancakes. Chickpeas or great northern beans are an excellent source of fiber, protein and iron and can be easily added to spaghetti sauce or even sugar cookies!

Let Your Child Help

Recruiting your child’s help to select fruits and veggies at the grocery store, or rinsing them at home, will make them yearn to try foods that they helped select.

Allowing kids to select foods they’ve never seen before exposes your picky eaters to a variety of foods. Don’t be afraid to try something new like a dragon fruit, jicama, or blood oranges (to name a few fun new foods).

Before your next trip to the grocery store, ask your fussy eater to look for different colors of fruits and veggies to try later. A colorful diet provides vitamins and minerals needed for normal growth in children, as well as short and long term health.

Lead By Example

If you try new foods or eat everything you serve on your plate, your child will try and do the same.

Keep healthy foods where they’re easy to see and easily accessible (e.g. a fruit bowl on your countertop or pre-made snack bags in the fridge).